Chasing the scent of Love, Truth, Beauty, and Mirth, wherever it may lead.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Presumptive Nominees

It
Should Have Been Better Than This

The last
time I wrote about politics in this space was back in early May of this year,
when there was a chance Bernie Sanders could still win the Democratic
nomination for U.S. President. I was dispirited when that was no longer a
possibility. (I hold out a vain hope it could still happen.) But I was angry
when I learned that the AP and CBS had called California for
Hillary before people had even voted. I thought that was unethical and gave the
distinct appearance of media interference in the election process. It should be
illegal.

Nevertheless,
as in the terribly dispiriting Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision, I realize
it’s a done deal. Bernie’s clear vision of restoring and updating FDR’s New
Deal, thus reclaiming the soul of the Democratic Party, isn’t happening this
year. The surge wasn’t quite strong enough to sweep aside the skeptics who fear
the economic turbulence of change and the insiders who fear losing control of
the party if Bernie’s revolution succeeds.

So now we
have Hillary, who, by winning her party’s nomination, has reached the
next-to-top step on her ambitious ladder of success. And on the other side is
Trump, who all the pundits agree has already disqualified himself from office
by his outrageous insults and fact-free policy statements. And although the
pundits have been wrong about Trump from the beginning, this time they may be
right. So far, anyway, Trump is coming across as a major-league bumbler. I
can’t imagine enough American voters are ignorant enough to believe that he has
the personal stature to fill that office.

But then,
I, too, did not think Trump would be the Republican nominee, though I’ll say he
was the most interesting character in that absurd line-up of contenders, all
competing for the title of Most Conservative Republican. The winner, Trump, may
not even be all that conservative. Real estate moguls rarely are, except where
it serves their business interests.

Still, it
seems of late Trump has looked pretty bad in the glare of the national spot
light. Meanwhile, the party bosses and elder statesmen, like a posse of
vigilantes, gather their forces to round up Trump and take him into custody—or
take him out, as most would really prefer. No one thinks Trump can win unless
he cooperates with the party, but he says he can run successfully without them.
I’ll bet a lot of people would cheer him on if he tried. Even so, however the
finger of fate vacillates, the Republicans just don’t look that good these
days.

I’m
predicting the American people will abandon the Republicans in large numbers,
except some Republican candidates will quickly move to the left a little and
save their seats. But a Democratic Senate is more than possible. I think it’s a
sure thing.

Meanwhile,
I hear Hillary quoting Bernie these days, when she isn’t thumping Trump. But
she’s not giving Bernie credit for her incremental conversion to his campaign
message. She sounds like she believes in socialism now, though I haven’t heard
her say the word and I doubt she will. Some progressives think it’s a good
thing Bernie forced her to the left, and, as a progressive myself, I suppose it
is.

But I
have a problem with Hillary when she talks about social and economic
inequality, breaking up the power of Wall Street, reforming criminal justice,
fixing America’s infrastructure, free college tuition, transitioning out of
fossil fuels and into renewables—all Bernie’s issues that Hillary didn’t
support until she started to lose elections. Does she think our memories are
that short that we don’t notice she’s changed her positions? That where before
she was center-left, with the possible exception of her more conservative
positions on economics and defense, her campaign now matches Bernie’s on a
number of major progressive fronts?

In a
debate Bernie once ironically congratulated Hillary for “coming to religion” on
the urgency of addressing climate change—a modification from her previous, more
conservative, wait-and-see position. As a citizen who supported Bernie, I feel
the same irony about Hillary’s seeming conversion to full left frontal. Is she
really leaving behind the cultural Boomer she and Bill personified when she was
First Lady and he was First Man? Her sudden shift to the left in her politics
during the primaries and now, as we approach convention time, affirmed
ever-more shrilly, should at least help me feel okay about this election. But I
don’t. I feel there’s an opportunity missed that can’t be recovered. I feel
that the wrong choices have already been made.

Then the
only hope is to minimize the damage. All good souls to the front! Peace and
justice must prevail. Nothing else will work for all of us, and anything less
is a kind of genocide.